Christmas Vespers at Westminster Cathedral

This Cathedral Choir disc presents the Office of Vespers as it is celebrated on Christmas Eve in Westminster Cathedral. The chant on this disc is the golden thread which runs throughout the entire liturgy giving the Office a natural rhythm and inevitability as well as clarity of text and beautiful language; it is complemented here by motets and canticles by Thomas Tallis, Tomás Luis de Victoria and Heinrich Schütz, while Jean Langlais’s massive Fête for organ concludes the service. You can purchase the CD from the Cathedral gift shop, or online from Hyperion or Amazon.

Sub Tuum Praesidium

In honour of yesterday's Feast of the Immaculate Conception, an early morning glimpse of the altar of the Lady Chapel. The altarpiece, a rare full-length version ofaa'Our Lady of Perpetual Succour', was created by Robert Anning Bell RA in the 1920s. Around the mosaic is the text of the ancient prayer to Our Lady: Sub Tuum Praesidium confugimus Sancta Dei Genetrix; nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus nostris (Under your protection we flee, Holy Mother of God. Do not ingore our prayers in our time of need).

The vault of the apse was created in 1930 by Gilbert Pownall. It is easy to see why the Lady Chapel is one of the most beloved areas of the Cathedral, for its present beauty, and its future promise - we hope one day that all the Cathedral will receive its mosaic covering and shine in glory like this.

The imagery on the apse vault is beautiful, and clearly draws upon the elaborate mosaics of the Church of San Clemente in Rome. The cross here is the Tree of Life, wherein Christ rules in majesty. From the tree spread vine branches, bearing fruit and giving rest to the birds of the air. At its fleet flow springs of living water. To the left stands Mary, patroness of London, standing before images of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Next to her is the archangel Gabriel, and then a host of saints particularly noted for their venenration of Our Lady. To the right of the cross stands St Peter, patron of Westminster (Westminster Abbey is more correctly the Abbey Church of St Peter), who stands before a mosaic representation of Westminster Cathedral.

At the Shrine of Our Lady

In the south transept is located this ancient statue of Our Lady. Created in the famous alabaster workshops of Nottingham, it dates from the early fifteenth century. While the majority of such medieval works in England were destroyed at the Reformation, this statue had been in France, although little else is known of its history. It was purchased at auction in 1954 (against keen bidding from the Dean of York Minster!), and enshrined in the Cathedral on 8 December 1955, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. The two simple candle sticks either side are also medieval.

Westminster Abbey possessed a famous medieval shrine to Our Lady, known as 'Our Lady of the Pewe' - perhaps a corruption of the French puissant, meaning powerful. Destroyed at the Reformation, the Abbey has recently restored an image of Our Lady of the Pewe, based on that in our Cathedral.

Our statue links Westminster Cathedral with the ancient faith of this land. It stands at the entrance to the Lady Chapel, beneath the Thirteen Station depicting Mary receiving her Son, in an area of the Cathedral fittingly called 'Mary's Domain.'

St Mark - the Lion in contemplation

St Mark (obviously, a favourite of mine) watches over the nave of the Cathedral from the pulpit, deeply lost in contemplating the Word. At his feet lies the the Lion that is the symbol of St Mark's powerful gospel.

W C Symons - a Glimpse of Heaven

Last evening there arrived in my office a wonderful cache of works by the artist W C Symons, comprising drawings and paintings for mosaics in the Cathedral. Symons was an old friend of J F Bentley, the Cathedral architect, and like him a and fellow convert. In 1899 Bentley asked Cardinal Vaughan that Symons should decorate one of the chapels. The result was the Holy Souls Chapel - yesterday's load includes preliminary sketches (left, below) for the finished altarpiece (right), where a Lamb and Cross are eventually replaced by the scarlet-clad figure of Christ in judgement.

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Although Bentley loudly approved of the finished design of the chapel it is hard to see how Symons achieved the architect's desire for 'a severe and very Greek style'. Installation of the Holy Souls mosaics took eighteen months, from June 1902 to November 1903.

In 1903, Symons submitted a proposal for the Blessed Sacrament chapel (above), with a striking depiction of the Trinity at its centre. It was rejected, and the chapel had to wait another sixty years for its decoration. In 1910, he received a commission for a mosaic of St Joan of Arc, funded by the Catholic Women's League. Yesterday's bundle contains a superb oil sketch (below) for this mosaic - considerably better, in fact, than the completed work (below, right) which stands in the north transept, near the Ambrosden Avenue entrance to the Cathedral.

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Symons also designed an image of the Holy Face, for the Sacred Heart chapel. The donor disliked it, but Symons refused to change it. However, Symons died in 1911, and in 1916 his mosaics were removed a new (and rather insipid) image of the Holy Face was installed. You can judge for yourself, with the drawing (below, left) and the actual mosaic (below, right)

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Finally, and appropriately for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the bundle of drawing contains several oil sketches for the Madonna and child, showing Symons experimenting with a Byzantine idiom, although clearly constrained by his Victorian outlook. None of these images was ever realised.

Althogether, both in terms of showing the evolution of Symons' completed designs, and in furnishing a glimpse ofwhat might have been, this is a fascinating addition to the Cathedral archive.

Balancing the Books

At last evening's Finance Committee meeting, we set budgets for 2007, and indeed they made for grim reading. In 2005, for the very first time in its history, the Cathedral was in the black - that is, it paid its way, and ended up with a decent operating profit at the end of the year. It looks as though we shall manage this again in 2006. But for 2007 the forecast is touch-and-go, and we shall be lucky to break even.

Even though we project an increase in revenue (and we have set ourself a target of a 5% increase in donations, which will be a considerable challenge), costs have spiralled. Unavoidable maintenance work and other factors will push our expenses well above 2006 levels.

Undoubtedly, the main item of cost is the music; a professional choir and musical tradition such as ours does not come cheaply. We also need to ensure that all our staff are paid acceptable salaries. In addition, the cost of running a large building (and its associated complex) is spiralling. Obviously, we have to keep the fabric of the building in good repair, but heating and lighting are expensive, and legislation (about, for example, fire detection systems) means further unavoidable cost.

There are, as ever, two necessary courses of action. Firstly, we must control expenditure. That will mean examining all our costs in detail to control outgoings; that is good practice anyway, and something we are morally obliged to do, relying as we do on money given to us. Here, the good news is that for the first time, detailed accounts and budgets are available to us (that's an actual photograph of them above!), and these will have to be scrutinised strictly.

Secondly, we must raise revenue, and this is something one does with a heavy heart. It means returning to our generous donors - those who contribute to the Cathedral weekly - and asking for more. It means serious high-level fundraising, which is hard and distasteful work. And it means increasing the charges for those who use the Hall, or hold Concerts in the Cathedral, as well as maximizing our commercial activities.

I've written before of the pain of all this; as a priest, one's concerns should ideally be spiritual, not fiscal. But Christians live in the world, and if one cares about the Cathedral and its mission (which I do passionately), then we have a responsibility to safeguard it for the present and future. Hard work ahead, but some good advice available - and prayers to boost our endeavours.

Catholic Blogging

I discovered the Blog (as a concept) on a recent trip to America, where every Priest seems to read the formidable Whispers in the Loggia, a lucid and informative commentary on the American (and occasionally wider) Catholic Church. There are many Catholic bloggers in this country too, covering a range of views and aspects of the Church.

I met last week one of the most interesting of these, who conceals his identity as Joee Blogs (and I shall respect his anonymity). This blog is impressive because its author is, as he says, 'a young catholic Londoner, attempting to live and realise his vocation on the background of London, England.' It's not always an easy path, and the author frankly and bravely chronicles his own concerns - perhaps not everyone would agree with all his views, but one cannot but admire his openness and his determination to bear withess to his faith in the contemporary world. I commend it you - the link is as above.